No Disappointments?

 Pinoys LOVE Christmas and New Years. They love the lights and decorations and singing carols and shopping. As I have been experiencing it for the first time it has been a bit odd to me. Why would a financially destitute people enjoy a holiday of such excessive spending? Especially since plugging in Christmas lights here can give you an electric bill it will take 3 months to pay off. What I've realized, though, is that it makes everything sort of pretty. There is so much filth here but when you see it decorated and lit up it sort of looks pretty and nice. Holidays and festivals of all kinds are a big deal here. The government regularly declares new holidays, sometimes with only a week or two notice. Everyone breaks out the backyard fireworks, plastic flag banners (like the ones that go across a swimming pool), and their karaoke machine! Don't have fireworks? No problem, small firearms work just as well. Aim at the sky and fire as many bullets in quick succession as possible. When we first arrived here the shots kept me up at night. I was worried I would wake to stories of murder each night in my neighborhood until I learned that the gunshots were just a way to partake in the evening celebration. On the bright side, we live in a cement house so there isn't much chance of a bullet reaching us in our sleep. =) 
When Chris was here visiting my neighbor repeatedly tried to convince him to come back for Christmas. He kept saying Christmas was better here than any where else in the world. I guess we all love the Christmas season but I don't think I've ever been deceived into believing that my home town had the BEST Christmas anywhere. Makes me chuckle a little at Pinoy pride. What was truly amazing (in a “I never ever want to experience this again!!” sort of way) was New Years. Decades ago the Chinese migrated into the Philippines in a big way and became an upper class of business based families. With their commerce, they also brought their traditions and superstitions. The Chinese, who celebrate their New Year in February, believe that you must use fireworks to chase away evil spirits on the first day of the year or your year will be cursed. The Filipinos have taken this to a whole new level of crazy. The fireworks started in my neighborhood a full week before the 1^st. Not just at night either. They would peter out around 3am and start back up at 7am. We shut up all our windows and draped plastic sheeting across the areas of our home that is just screened in in preparation for the big night. By the time the 31^st rolled around the kids and I were going crazy. We were so jumpy from the constant explosions that we were actually ducking. Fireworks here are not regulated and are relatively cheap so these are bigger than what we are used to buying. We could actually feel some of the concussions as they went off. We went up to the school to watch the show. I was warned not to stay home and after surviving the week none of us wanted to. Fireworks began as soon as it got dark but the sort of thing Americans are used to seeing in a 'Finale' began around 9:30. This continued straight through until 12:30. For as far as the eye could see West toward Manila Bay and North and South too. From our mountain, you can literally see the entire Metro Manila area and then some. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. And it was entirely covered in glorious fireworks. 
However, where there is fire... you guessed it, there is smoke. As we watched, the smoke created by the explosions slowly crept over the city and obscured our view, until close to midnight, we couldn't see more than a ½ mile out. I put the kids in the car to sleep and waited for a few hours before I attempted to drive home. It was like driving through heavy fog. The smoke was so thick I could barely see the mounds of trash left in the streets from the burnt fireworks. That night I let out a huge sigh of relief. It was over! The next day I made a point of avoiding the news since many kids are maimed for life or killed each year during this celebration and I didn't want to know how many. The neighbor who had insisted this would be such a great experience caught me during the afternoon. We exchanged “Happy New Year!”s and then he excitedly asked, “How did you like it? No disappointments?” What could I say that wouldn't offend his national pride? So I lied. “No disappointments!” While swearing to myself I would never do this again.